POMPEII BATHS SHIELDED CHILD FROM ASH BUT NOT FROM THE PYROCLASTIC SURGE

THE first skeletal remains found in Pompeii in decades shed a horrifying new light on the tragedy.

A child sought shelter under the strong roof of Pompeii's central bath house complex as nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted terrifyingly, spewing vast amount of hot ash and pumice.

And although the roof withstood the weight of the volcanic ash, a searing-hot pyroclastic surge poured through the bath house's window ... incinerating the poor child.

The child's body was undisturbed until now, when archaeologists using ground-scanning tools were surprised to find it just inches below the surface at an entryway to the bath house. 

The body of the child, believed to have been seven or eight years old, is the first to be found at Pompeii in decades. 

Researchers believe he or she, like thousands of others who failed to flee the Roman city near present-day Naples, died instantly when white-hot gases engulfed the small body. 

The ash and flow later hardened around the body.

Massimo Osanna, director of the Pompeii archaeological park, says the "extraordinary find" was made in an area formerly thought to have been fully excavated in the 19th Century.

"Thanks to new high-tech instruments, the last child of Pompeii has emerged from inside a previously unexcavated corner," Osanna says. 

The skeleton will be examined to determine whether it was a boy or a girl and whether the child had any diseases, the archaeological park said in a statement. 

The park notes that unlike many other buildings in Pompeii, the roof of the part of the sprawling bath house complex where the body was found did not collapse, but volcanic material flowed through the windows in the final phase of the 79 AD eruption.